Anonymous creator of Gas Works guerrilla art is thrilled with response

A group of golden statues were discovered at Gas Works Park on Tuesday. (Mónica Guzmán/seattlepi.com)

The Seattle artist who created the mysterious golden statues that appeared in Gas Works Park Tuesday ate lunch there this afternoon as she watched people take pictures of her “guerrilla” art.

“I’ve gotten an incredible amount of inspiration from the reaction this has received, from the way it’s touched and inspired so many people,” said the artist, who spoke on the condition that we not release her name.

“I can’t describe how important that is to me.”

The artist is a longtime painter who recently started working with sculpture. It took her about 70 hours to create the papier-maché statues for display at an art festival called Ignition Northwest before she and five friends dressed in black and carried them to Gas Works Park around 10:15 Monday night.

The statues were installed without a city permit, but the artist sees nothing wrong with giving her work another purpose.

In fact, she’s proud of it.

“Part of the meaning of the project is to get out and do things you wouldn’t normally do,” she said. “Start creating your environment rather than just living in it.”

If this is a case of city versus art, art won. Though the Seattle Parks Department told The Seattle Times it would remove the sculpture Thursday, it reversed its decision after it received calls from residents who wanted more time to go and see it.

The department says it will leave the installation in place until it rains, it’s vandalized or it’s Labor Day — whichever comes first.

“We got a lot of positive feedback on them,” said Seattle Parks Department spokeswoman Dewey Potter. “Some people thought they wouldn’t get to see them before the weekend.”

The artist said the most rewarding things about her subversive art is following the conversation it’s inspired — and knowing she started it. A Times story drew 120 reader comments.

“You get people with a knee-jerk reaction — ‘This is trash’ — but unwittingly they’ve suddenly become part of a discussion on public art and the place of art in society,” she said.

“The gift to Seattle isn’t just the sculptures themselves, but the experience and the discussion that comes from them.”